Basin‐Wide Effects of Game Harvest on Vertebrate Population Densities in Amazonian Forests: Implications for Animal‐Mediated Seed Dispersal

ABSTRACT Vertebrate responses to hunting are widely variable for target and nontarget species depending on the history of hunting and productivity of any given site and the life history traits of game species. We provide a comprehensive meta‐analysis of changes in population density or other abundance estimates for 30 mid‐sized to large mammal, bird and reptile species in 101 hunted and nonhunted, but otherwise undisturbed, Neotropical forest sites. The data set was analyzed using both an unnested approach, based on population density estimates, and a nested approach in which pairwise comparisons of abundance metrics were restricted to geographic groups of sites sharing similar habitat and soil conditions.…

• GA
  Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
• MM
  Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation
• FA
  Fundo Amazônia